Two thousand fans packed the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara last week to see Adam Sandler in person. After forty years of comedy records, TV appearances and movies he’s still on top of his game. It was my happy assignment to interview him on stage for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. We hit it off right away and he gave thoughtful answers to my questions, punctuated with comic asides that met with roars of approval.
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He was a teenager when he started performing in comedy clubs, and 22 when he hit the big time on Saturday Night Live. That’s when I first became aware of hm, because my young daughter showed me his performance of “The Chanukah Song,” which meant so much to her as a Jewish kid. He also produced the first Hollywood movie about the candle-driven holiday, Eight Crazy Nights
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But every time he tackles a serious role, as he did this past year in Jay Kelly, and before that in Punch-Drunk Love, The Meyerowitz Stories, and Uncut Gems, people act surprised. We talked about his four-year commitment to acting at New York University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He is a genuine guy with a serious amount of depth, and I don’t think there is any limit to what he can do.
As an actor and as a comedian, Adam Sandler simply tells the unvarnished truth. That’s why fans of all ages respond to him. It’s why Dustin Hoffman, who befriended him thirty years ago and played his father in The Meyerowitz Stories, traveled to Santa Barbara to present him with the Maltin Modern Master Award.
At the end of the evening he thanked me profusely before reading a prepared speech that was peppered with punchlines. My favorite: “Thank you to the studios, who when I pitch a movie say ‘We don’t know who this movie is for’ and I say, ‘My friends. We like hanging out and we want you to ****ing pay for it.” And that’s the truth.
